Desire to build but not totally clear on how

[induction]

I couldn't really say if there's a difference. I usually get whatever's cheap. I got my 3046 from an electronics surplus store. It works great, but I haven't compared the tone with any other version of the chip. I don't have it in front of me atm, so I couldn't tell you which chip I actually used. It may have been a 3086 or a 30146. I understand 3146 and TBA331 should work also.

The only way to tell if you prefer one over another is to try them out. I find that opinions on the internet are generally worth what they cost for that sort of thing.

[Ronnie]

I ordered a 10 pack from China and some sockets so I'll be able to try out all of them to find the best sounding one if there are any variations within the same chip. That is the last piece for me to put on the board. Then I'm going to tackle the volume, inputs, power and footswitch. May have questions then. I'll be sure to look through the links you sent earlier firs though. Thanks!

[Ronnie]

I received the final parts and completed the board today. Is there any way to test the circuit prior to wiring the pots and switches. I was expecting the soldering to go a little smoother but it's a different experience than soldering pcb. Just wanted to check for shorts before going through the trouble of putting it in an enclosure and then having to take it back out. Thanks.

[induction]

You can test it without the pots and switches, but really you want to test them too. I usually test the whole circuit, and only remove pots and switches for troubleshooting purposes.

You can wire it all up outside of the box and test it. Or if you have the box assembled with the pots, switches, and jacks already, just use extra long wires to test it and then snip and resolder the wires.

I usually run test leads for all controls and jacks, and then test it on the breadboard.

Your best practice depends on your method for mounting the circuit in the box, which can vary a lot from person to person.

[peterinio]

Hey Ronnie!

I'm kind of a newbie myself in the DIY effects thing, mainly started through this site :)
What I would suggest is building the Test Kit, found in this link:
https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2014/09/test-box-20.html

I basically build a stripped down version of the above - What you really need is the 4-way terminal connector (you can get it off tayda or any of your local electronics store). You use the terminals for power connection (+ and ground) and the input and output of the pedal you're making.

You should connect the + and ground of the terminal to a dc jack, and then also add 2 jacks (for input and output) to the box. Also connect all grounds together.

Now personally I used a DPDT switch (6 terminals) for my selector. Use a Jumper wire for terminals 3 and 6, connect the input jack to terminal 2 and the output jack to terminal 5. Then you connect the input from the 4-way terminal to terminal 1 of the DPDT, and the output from the 4-way terminal to terminal 4 of the DPDT.

What i would do is actually solder the pot on a small piece of vero (5 by 2) and solder wires to the respective lugs of the pot. Then you connect the wires to the vero. This has the added benefit of reusing the pot if you want, and it also acts as a heat sink.

Lastly, you connect the input/output and +9v and ground of the vero to the terminal, connect power through the dc jack, and you're ready to check if your build works.

Hope the above wasn't too complex!

[Ronnie]

Thank you so much for the detailed info but on first read that went way over my head. I'll check out the link and see if it makes more sense. I'm mostly worried if I have any solder that's crossed over so I may do the sharp knife between the tracks trick to make sure that nothing is touching. I'm jumping over from BYOC kits so I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew. I'm just taking it one step at a time and everyone's been very helpful. I'll get this one working at all costs and then see if I want to try again. Thanks again.

[peterinio]

Hey Ronnie,

If you can provide a photo of the veroboard maybe the good folks here can give you some feedback on any potential bad solder joints

Keep at it, Soldering on the vero (or in general) is something that you get better at with lots of practice. Plus, i found that it helps my soldering if I solder with thinner solder wire (0,5mm instead of 1mm that i used).

[Ronnie]

Hey Induction,
 I finally have the board built and the wiring done based on the Retro Channel The Fuzz layout. I am moving on to the offboard wiring but I don't see an output from the board on the layout. Is that an oversight? Does the "Level 2 to output" go to the output on the switch or the output on the out jack. Thanks for any clarity.

[induction]

Level 3 is the board output. Level 2 goes to the bypass switch.

In most DIY pedal designs, the input and output jacks are connected to the switch, the board input comes from the switch, and the board output goes to either the volume pot (usually labelled 'Volume 3' or similar on the layout, with a note that says 'Volume 2 to output') or directly to the switch (usually labelled 'output').

Rarely, there is an input volume pot and the board input comes from lug 2 of that and will be labelled 'Gain 2' or the suchlike (some Fuzz Faces have this and call it the 'Smooth' pot). It is generally recommended to keep a copy of the schematic nearby when building, because they're easier to read than layouts for the purpose of figuring this stuff out.

The only time I can think of when you would connect the jacks directly to the board is if the circuit is designed for buffered bypass. Very few such designs are posted here. It's most common with delays and reverbs, but even most of them are true bypass when DIY'd.

Did you test it out? How did you like it?

[Ronnie]

Thanks again. So am I clear that the Level 3 wire will go from the board to lug 3 of the Level knob and lug 2 of the Level knob will go to the switch labeled output? Thanks again for your time. I have not fired this up yet so fingers crossed I haven't messed anything up. All of my BYOC builds have worked so I have no experience in troubleshooting. Can't really read schematics either so flying a bit blind here.

[induction]

You are exactly correct.

[Ronnie]

On the top image, is that an LED connected to the 2k2 resistor or a diode? If I don't need an LED do I still need the resistor on that wire? Thanks.

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/02/offboard-wiring.html

[rocket88]

If you’re not using an LED your don’t need a 3PDT switch, you can do true bypass switching with a DPDT switch.

[billboneys]

So I finally finished the build and surprisingly it works with a few caveats. On bypass I get the clean signal but it is very low. I have to turn the amp up all the up way to hear it. When I engage the pedal it works fine but the Attack knob seems to work backwards. It seems to have less gain clockwise and more gain counterclockwise. I have double checked the wiring and it seems correct. When looking at the back of the pot, the lugs from left to right are 3,2,1 correct? The volume knob works fine using that numbering. Lastly, the LED lights up when the pedal is engaged even with no cables inserted. Not a big deal but wanted to make sure that was correct. Thanks for any input.

[induction]

billboneys wrote

the Attack knob seems to work backwards. It seems to have less gain clockwise and more gain counterclockwise.

You are correct. The Attack pot is wired backwards on the layout. Reverse lugs 1 and 3. Good catch.

billboneys wrote

the LED lights up when the pedal is engaged even with no cables inserted. Not a big deal but wanted to make sure that was correct.

This depends on how you wire up the input jack. If you used the offboard wiring from this site, this behavior is expected.

billboneys wrote

On bypass I get the clean signal but it is very low. I have to turn the amp up all the up way to hear it.

This indicates a problem. Possibly your bypass wiring is incorrect. Possibly your switch is bad. If you can post a hi-res closeup of the bypass switch, we can take a look.

[billboneys]

Thanks for all of that. Here is a picture of the switch.

https://i.imgur.com/GjsVeYK.jpg

[induction]

That looks okay to me.

Here's some things you can try to help narrow down the problem.

1. Try running a jumper directly from the input jack tip lug to the output jack tip lug and set the effect to bypass.
    - If this sounds bad, then the problem is probably not the switch.

2. Try the same thing with a jumper between lugs 8 and 9 on the switch. (Bottom right in your picture, and the one directly above it.)
    - If this improves things, then it probably is the switch.

3. If you have an ohmmeter, check the resistance between these two lugs in bypass.
    - If there's more than a few ohms, then the problem is almost certainly the switch.

In case you don't know already: These switches are very sensitive to overheating. The red plastic that holds the lugs in place melts very easily, so the lugs can shift internally if overheated. The lugs can also develop a layer of grease over the internal contacts, which can cause malfunction or poor performance. When you solder these things, hold the iron in place for no more than 1 second at a time. Most of us have destroyed a bunch of them by overheating. Afterwards, you often can't tell the difference visually.

[billboneys]

I ran the jumper and it looks like it is the switch. It's my first one to ruin so I've learned that lesson. I had a few other questions which may be too complicated to take the time to answer but if you could point me anywhere then that would be great also. I have an actual Retro Channel pedal and it and this build have a high noise floor. Is there any way to lower this? I'd also love to add a tone and or bias knob to this circuit as well. Is this too ambitious. By that I mean would it involve changing the circuit or could it be added in to what is already there? Thanks for all of the time you've spent helping me with this build. i appreciate it.

[induction]

Re noise floor: Noise comes from a few different sources, but the power supply is always the first culprit. A battery is quietest, followed by a regulated adapter. There are other considerations as well (lead dress and layout both contribute), but I'd start with power.

Tone controls can be added to almost any circuit with a daughter board attached to the output (thus no need to modify the vero you've already built, but you'd need room in the enclosure for the daughter board). Lots of tone controls drop serious amounts of volume, though. So it's common to add an extra amplification stage after the tone control. There are many options for the tone circuit, so some research is required. Google 'guitar pedal tone control' and follow links for AMZ and any other link the piques your interest. Also download and play with the Duncan Tone Stack Calculator to get a feel for how some of them behave. Most pedals have only a single pot for tone control, but you can go as crazy as you like. Just beware that the output impedance of the circuit has a lot of impact on the results, so it's not always plug and play. I do this sort of thing on a breadboard before I ever even think about building it into a pedal.

Variable bias in the Tonebender MkII (which is what this pedal really is) is generally applied to the collector of Q2. In this layout that is controlled by the 100k that stretches between pin 9 of the chip and V+. To play with that, you could replace that resistor with a 250k pot and see if it's worth making it variable. External bias controls are kind of an advanced topic, and I don't know whether it would be sonically rewarding in this case. Totally worth experimenting with at some point, but again, I'd do it on a broadboard rather than a finished vero, myself.

[billboneys]

More great info. Thank you so much. I noticed on the CA3046 pinout diagram that pin 9 is the base of Q4. Confirming that is still the correct resistor to replace with the 250k pot in this circuit?

Thanks.